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In nearly 40 years of pastoral ministry, I’ve learned so much from other pastors.

And it hasn’t just been from pastors of big churches. Pastors of small churches have taught me a lot, also.

Typically, I get one type of wisdom from those in big churches, and a different ...

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There are two equal, but opposite mistakes we make when it comes to discovering a church’s mission.

First extreme: find out what the cool churches are doing and copy that.

Second extreme: find something no other church is doing and pursue that.

The first extreme is an obvious ...

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There are a lot of cool churches in the world.

Congregations trying the latest ideas, ministries using cutting-edge graphics, and worship bands leading us in the newest songs.

I like cool churches.

It’s great to see them keeping up to date, trying innovative methods, and ...

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Are you involved in church leadership? As in, does any of your ministry involve overseeing, teaching or helping other church leaders?

If so, have you ever been frustrated by the inability of some small churches to utilize your ideas? No doubt you have.

Here’s a simple illustration ...

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Some ministers seem to be ideally suited for what they do.

Their passion, their skill set, their spiritual gifting and their circumstances all seem to line up in one integral whole.

But what about the rest of us? What do you do when you feel divided? When your passion goes in ...

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In the next decade or two, we are going to see an unprecedented number of churches close their doors.

Unprecedented for North Americans churches, that is.

We know this is coming because we’ve already seen it happen in Europe. Many of their historic church buildings are as ...

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Breaking the 200 barrier.

I wonder if any subject has received more attention in the last generation of church leadership training.

In some ways, it makes sense to spend so much time talking about it. After all, there is a fundamental shift that must take place when a church reaches ...

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Recently I heard a pastor say two words that hit me like a punch to the gut.

I was watching him in a short online video teaching clip, when he referenced an article he’d read on a blog a couple years ago.

Before talking about the content of the article, he off-handedly quipped, ...

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Preaching is one of the most important responsibilities of the pastor in a small church context.

It’s important, not just because it is the most visible function of a pastor, but because it is one of the primary tools for discipleship.

As pastors, our primary job is making ...